Reagan should rightfully be honoured as America's father of deregulation but it's hard to see how this designation deserves a reward. Financial deregulation initiated by Reagan helped cause a recession during his first term and was the crucial first step which ultimately led to the global meltdown of 2008.

It wasn't too long ago when Canadians were shouting at the top of their lungs about George Bush, the Iraq War, Guantanamo Bay, Gay Rights and a myriad of other "American" issues. But the tides have turned quickly. Canada is now what the U.S. was in the George W. Bush days. I can't point to exact moment, but all I can say it happened really fast.

News that former Massachusetts Governor and U.S. Ambassador to Canada Argeo Paul Cellucci has died on Saturday following a brief and courageously public battle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, called to mind the legacy of a man I came to know through his passion for Canada.

News that four former Guantanamo detainees have filed a complaint against Canada with the UN Committee Against Torture for the Canadian government's failure to arrest George W. Bush has caused quite a tempest in our teapot. Evidence of Bush's involvement in authorizing war crimes and torture goes far beyond the reasonable grounds necessary for law enforcement.

There are very few things in life that simultaneously fill you with both cynicism and exhilaration like the American presidential election. And 2012 is certainly no exception. As the election cycle draws to a close, here's a look back at some of the most valuable insights from the year.

We now see every week the crumbling of foreign policy of the United States. The War on Terror was not without mistakes, but the War on Drugs has been a disaster in every respect. Only 20 years ago, the U.S. bestrode the world, the only super power, strong by any measurement. Today it is quavering, waffling, semi-bankrupt, lurching from one mistaken and often hypocritical policy to the next.

International relations scholar Henry Nau suggested two metaphoric approaches to U.S. foreign policy. The first is the jigsaw puzzle. The second is the chess game. The United States will determine whether it wants to play chess or jigsaw for the future of North America. The question is, will Harper decide to play nicely with the others?

In Afghanistan, Obama is all but conceding defeat. We saw it in Vietnam when then-President Richard Nixon assured that the withdrawal of American troops meant "peace with honour." But it's still a country where, if the Taliban have power, Sharia law will flourish, women will continue to be persecuted, niceties like amputations, stoning, honour killings and such will blossom.

The reluctance of the United States to be involved even peripherally in an almost open-ended series of concurrent Middle Eastern conflicts is understandable. But Syria is aflame. Its regime has been a notorious terrorist exporter for decades, and is the chief conduit for Iran into the Arab world, the principal supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas.

It is outrageous that some commentators have compared President Obama to Franklin D. Roosevelt (not to mention the president's own immodest favourable comparison of himself to FDR and Lyndon Johnson and, for good measure, Abraham Lincoln).

Team Canada's heartbreaking defeat at the World Junior Hockey semifinals has many Canadians thinking ruefully about their Russian rivals on ice. But they'd be wise to pay attention to another Russian rivalry: Vladimir Putin's aggressive new push to expand Russian arctic sovereignty claims.